As is known, in motorcycles the calipers for disk brakes are easily exposed to impact against stones, earth and obstacles in general. This impact is extremely dangerous because it can irreparably damage the calipers and can also bring them out of alignment, for example, relative to the brake disk, causing a serious malfunction of the disk brake.
These disadvantages are particularly common when motorcycles are used on uneven ground, for example, in off-road use.
In order to overcome these disadvantages and to limit the components of the braking forces which tend to bring the caliper out of alignment with the brake disk, it is known to constrain the caliper body on its support at two points which are as far away from one another as possible, generally at the longitudinal ends of the caliper body.
In addition, caliper constructions for disk brakes are known in the prior art in which the means for securing the caliper to support elements operatively connected to the fork are disposed in planes substantially perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the wheel.
These known securing means do not, however, enable the caliper body to be placed in a position sufficiently protected from any impact.
An example of these known securing means is disclosed in JP 1130252.
In fact, the space requirements of the securing means and of the corresponding support elements, if arranged perpendicularly to the axis of rotation of the wheel, are such as to interfere with the fork itself.
This problem is even more evident in the case of brake disks having small dimensions. The need to use small brake disks is dictated by a number of reasons, such as, for example, the reduction in the risk of impact of the disk against stones and earth, the reduction in the masses that are not suspended on the front axle which has to be capable of promptly following the unevenness of the ground, and the reduction in gyroscopic effects.
On the other hand, owing to the small diameter of the disk, the caliper is even closer to the wheel spindle and both the securing means and the support elements prevent the caliper from being placed in a sufficiently protected and covered position.
The problem of the present invention is to provide a caliper for a disk brake and a support element for a caliper for a disk brake which overcome the disadvantages mentioned with reference to the prior art.
These disadvantages and limitations are overcome by a caliper according to claim 1 and by a support element according to claim 23.
Other embodiments of the caliper body and of the support element for the caliper body according to the invention are described in the following claims.